


Hustle

by Fides



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Case Fic, Flash Fic, Gen, Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, mmom, mmom 2008, mmom 2008: day 31
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-31
Updated: 2008-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-03 02:04:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fides/pseuds/Fides
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starsky and Hutch investigate a stabbing in the meatpacking district.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hustle

"Hey!" Starsky yelled.

The two figures in the ally jumped apart guiltily. For a second Starsky thought they might be stupid enough to run but the blond hulk of his partner appearing at the other end of the alley persuaded them it wasn't worth it. Which was a good thing, Starsky really wasn't in the mood to go chasing after a two-bit hustler and his trick.

Starsky looked the punter over; middle-aged and not bad looking, probably a white collar worker somewhere up town. Starsky suppressed the desire to ask what the hell the guy was doing in this neighbourhood as it was obvious. No one looked their best when caught getting jacked off by street trade but he looked like he was going to pass clean out when Hutch shoved him against the wall and patted him down.

"Wife?" he asked when the man turned back, Hutch flicking through his wallet with interest.

The man flushed.

"Kids?"

He nodded miserably. Starsky met Hutch's eyes over the sap's shoulder. Hutch shook his head slightly. He wasn't their guy. Hutch handed the wallet to him, and Starsky handed it back trusting his partner to have made a note of the guy's details if they needed to follow up. The guy stared at the brown leather as if he had never seen it before.

Starsky's patience was beginning to run a thin.

"Get." Starsky jabbed over his shoulder with his thumb.

The guy blinked stupidly at him a few times, not quite believing what he was hearing, and the pulled himself together and ran. Fright would probably keep him home for a few weeks but he would be back, needing to scratch that itch that he couldn't satisfy at home. He just hoped that the guy would wise up; if he had to play both sides of the park then there were safer ways than walking around the meatpacking district like an invitation to every mugger in a five block radius.

Dismissing the man, Starsky turned back to the hustler, knowing without looking that Hutch was doing the same. The young man looked between them cynically, kohl smudged eyes blown wider than the darkness accounted for. Starsky found himself automatically looking down to check his arms for track marks but the tatty arms of an army surplus jacket hid any such evidence from prying stares.

"What can I do for you, officers?" The was an impressive amount of bravado in the question and just enough insinuation to get Starsky's back up.

"We aren't looking for a vice bust," Hutch assured him quietly. "We just need information."

The hustler eyed them warily.

"The stabbing," Hutch elaborated, "two nights ago. Just around the corner from here."

That got them a reaction. The surprise would have been funny if it hadn't been so insulting.

"The cops are looking into that?"

"Yeh," Starsky growled, "we are. You work this block, you must have seen something. "

The punk must have been flying to get right back in Starsky's face but he did it. "Why do you care if some queer kid gets wacked?"

"I care if anybody gets wacked, especially on my turf. You gunna help us or are we gunnna continue this talk down the station?"

That got him a contemptuous snort. "I thought you weren't planning on dragging my ass in."

"We've got cause to search you for drugs," Hutch easily turned the attention back to him, "and I'm willing to bet you are carrying. Not to mention impeding an investigation. We could pull you in for that alone."

There was something about his partner and blond hookers, Starsky decided. They took one look at Hutch and fell for him. As their potential witness gave Hutch a slow once over evidence suggested that this effect wasn't limited to the working _girls_.

"But we just want to help," Hutch continued earnestly. "The person who did this is dangerous and we want him off the streets and behind bars as fast as possible."

"People," the hustler corrected. "There were three of them."

The macho provocation was gone and without it Starsky found him revising his estimate of the kids age downwards.

"It wasn't a dispute over turf," Starsky confirmed quietly. That had been the theory which had come attached with the case but something about it hadn't rung true with either of them. Which was why they were dragging their butts around hustler's block soliciting for information.

The boy shook his head.

Hutch reached out and squeezed his shoulder gently. "Just tell us everything you know. We'll take it from there."


End file.
